Traffic engineers admit hacking

Two Los Angeles city transportation engineers pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count of illegally accessing a city computer that controlled traffic lights, according to the county district attorney’s office.

Gabriel Murillo, 39, and Kartik Patel, 36, admitted disconnecting four signal control boxes when they hacked into an automated traffic surveillance center Aug. 21, 2006, the release said. No accidents were reported while the signals were down, but it took four days before the signals were fully operational, a news release said.

Murillo and Patel pleaded guilty in a negotiated settlement and agreed to pay restitution and either serve 120 days in jail or perform 240 hours of community service. The two will be formally sentenced in a year.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles